


Cardigan-Wrapped Enigmas

by buckyno



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Humor, M/M, One-Shot, Unbeta'd, fitz fitzing, i'm sure mack thinks about other things but i wouldn't know it, mack wanting to mack fitz while he's fitzing, set before the other shield comes to light, short little diddly, somebody stop me, the enigma that is leo fitz
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-03
Updated: 2015-05-03
Packaged: 2018-03-28 20:54:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3869449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buckyno/pseuds/buckyno
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As a guy who pretty much thrived on figuring things out, meeting Leo Fitz was one of the worst things that could have happened to Mack.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cardigan-Wrapped Enigmas

**Author's Note:**

> Haha what other S.H.I.E.L.D. ha ha what rift in the team. Lol I have no idea what you’re talking about everybody is together and happy with no forced isolation or mutiny to speak of…I’m dead inside.

Mack was good at figuring things out. He could tinker with something for hours until he knew how every single mechanism worked. No manual, no nothing, just him and the wells of patience instilled in him by his grandmother. Needless to say, Leo Fitz was a conundrum of sorts for him because Mack had been pretty damn good about figuring out people as he was machines up until he came face to face with the Scottish scientist he’d heard so much about. Most of what he heard was always preempted by a vague allusion to how Fitz was “before”. Mack didn’t know what Fitz was like before, the one he was getting to know now was…well, he was something. Gorgeous for one thing, in that quiet unassuming way of his, like he’s got no idea how he looks. Every careful, halting word Mack got from him felt like a victory. Over time that got easier, for them both, Fitz gained more confidence in his speech allowing himself to ramble and Mack did a better job of not staring at the engineer’s mouth when that Scottish brogue rolled out in soft ones and bitter edges. The guy was hard to get a read on beyond the problems on the surface too. 

Apparently Fitz had never been so quiet “before”, it made the others walk on eggshells around him and he of course did the same in return. The hardest thing though for Mack to get a hold on was Fitz’s sense of humor. Fitz didn’t take teasing particularly well, he didn’t get angry or anything so extroverted but he did develop this full-body blush Mack thought was absolutely lovely. However when Fitz was on the giving end of things he delivered in the driest tone Mack had ever heard with a face of utter sincerity. So sincere it was terribly difficult to realize he was fucking with you.

“You’re looking glum today.” Skye observed in the common room of the base. Fitz was staring at the kettle on the stove with slightly furrowed brows and did in fact look a bit gloomy.

Fitz didn’t look up when he replied, “I come from the land of rain, fog, and school teachers who told us we were all going to hell. I’m allowed to be glum, it is in fact probably my natural state.”

“Your hometown couldn’t have been that bad.” Skye accused good-naturedly.

Fitz picked the empty kettle up and looked at the bottom, “Our village lived next to these cliffs that plunged right down into the ocean…it was, er, pleasant in the summertime. But in the Autumn, the air, no the fog made it hard to miss the drop. Town loses two or three people a year to it.”

Skye’s eyes widen in horror, “…Oh my god.”

They shared a silence. Mack had been on the sofa parallel to the kitchen listening to the exchange. He squinted at Fitz, who had some type of obsession with that kettle, then jabbed an accusing finger at him, “You’re fucking with us aren’t you, Turbo?”

Fitz finally raised blue his eyes to see two incredulous faces, “Well…yeah.” Then he walked out, taking the kettle with him.

Skye stared at the empty space Fitz had just occupied. A slow, pleased, smile brightened her features. The next time Mack saw Fitz he was under his worktable in the lab. The kettle sat on the floor beside him with the bottom neatly cut out of it in a perfect circle. Mack got to the floor too, sliding under like he would a car. There was a lot more going on under the table then Mack realized but this was S.H.I.E.L.D. after all. Fitz was busy soldering another metal piece to the kettle bottom leaving tiny notches for wires that would be soon connected to it. He didn’t say anything to Mack but he did scoot over a little to make room for the bigger man.

“Modifying the heat recognition for the holograms, Turbo?” 

“Obviously.”

Not so obvious to Mack actually who had never seen the exposed underbelly of the lab. What Fitz was trying to do was kind of sweet. The other non-science types on their team had some trouble with using the holo-table sometimes, Fitz was attempting to make the interface easier to interact with, specifically the touch sensitivity. He did small things like that all the time, Mack took note of it but never said anything because of the overly sneaky way Fitz was going about it. The little scientist didn’t want anyone to know for reasons beyond Mack.  
While Mack was lost in his own musings he’d failed to notice Fitz had stopped his tinkering and was staring intently at him and in those close-quarters with no prying eyes it felt very…intimate. Mack didn’t mind that all staring right back into those blue eyes framed in long, long lashes. He put all his affection into that one gaze and loved the way Fitz's soft jumper felt against his arm. 

Fitz blinked, “Mack?”

Mack turned his head more, at a better angle for…things, “Yeah, Turbo?”

“You’re blocking my way out.” Fitz says bluntly and maybe a little confused with the sudden tension. Sure enough Mack had managed to trap Fitz against a table leg that looked like it was pressing rather painfully against Fitz’s back.

“Oh…oh! Sorry.” Mack wiggles awkwardly out grateful he didn’t blush easily. Fitz follows out after him much more graceful but with his eyes cast downward, that usually meant he was sussing-out a problem.

“Something wrong?” asks Mack. Honestly he felt a little hollow, he wasn’t used to this drawn-out type of attraction. He was smart enough to know work-place romances never ended well. Case in point: Lance and Bobbie. The prospect of never being able to call Fitz his was so much more disheartening. If it was not to be he could deal with that. He could deal with being friends and being able to make his friend happy however he could but this weird netherworld of feelings was not sitting well with him.

“What? Um, no?”

“Was there a question mark behind that?” Mack smiled wide and genuine. 

Fitz finally looks up, the tiniest of pulls at the corners of his mouth-small but just as genuine. He shrugs, dusts off his pants at the knees and walks out the job assumedly done leaving Mack to ponder every little movement Fitz had made, what that smile had meant. Maybe he would never really figure Fitz out, but damn him if he wasn’t going to try.


End file.
